Orange Slices
by Chocolate covered Sakuranbo
Summary: Two stubborn people brought together to create romance from some beautiful fate. But how will Chase's rival react with jealousy? Will Chihaya be trying a blood orange cake, Akari missing soon after? AkariXChihaya and a mixture of rival loves
1. Chocolate covered Oranges

Akari presses on her temples as if the dull pain would take away the throbbing headache while entering the Sundae Inn. Just her luck, Maya bounces around the corner carrying strawberry shortcake to Chihaya. He tastes the poison, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "This is horrible! Did you use salt instead of suger?!"

This makes the blonde's eyes swell with tears as she shrieks in a shrill voice. "You're cruel Chihaya!" Then the waitress dashes out, leaving them alone. Too late to be an Inn, too early for the bar.

"Seems you're girlfriend is mad at you Chase." Akari mocks, using his English name. The farm girl hates this man with a passion. Never has she met such a jerk! Plus he wears barrettes. What straight man wears clips in his peachy hair?

"That child is **not** my girlfriend! What are you doing here anyways?! We're closed for this hour, I should kick you out," he snaps rudely, turned away to cook.

She doesn't look well; usually Akari would bounce in and cheerfully volunteer to help at the bar. But that would not be for another hour…

"Keep your stuck-up comments to yourself for once and just get me a drink," Akari plops down on a plush bar chair, and lays her head away from light.

Now he knows something is wrong, she never drinks.

"What would you like?" Chihaya tests, thinking she would say something like Apple Juice. The dork.

"Strongest alcohol you have…" she looks up to see him turned to her with question in his violet eyes. He was beautiful, she has to admit. And…perhaps some kindness was hidden behind those eyes. "Just hurt myself and the clinic's not open…" She expects a smart-ass comment, but instead he gets her a drink and moves the other side of the counter. Their lips inches away to the point she can feel his hot breath on her face, strong scent of oranges and spice filling her nose.

"Out of the goodness in my heart, I'll let you pay me 250G to clean and wrap it." He smirks as Akari sucks in a breath. Chihaya has nothing but alcohol, it will hurt. But…she could not leave it alone for much longer…

Akari looks down and lifts up her left pant leg to reveal a bloody poorly wrapped wound. The chef moves to unwrap the bandages, making the girl hold her breath. Even the lightest touch brings horrible agony.

"I think you might have cut to the bone…"

Her heart races at his words, knowing the pain would intensify very soon.

Akari remembers getting the wound vividly. She had pulled out the wrong tool when about to brush her new cow. On the edge of the small hill she was forced to back away from the kicking animal. The fall was not far but the axe drove in enough to make up for that.

Akari rubs her head again. Stupid Luke. If he had not kept her up all night she would have been more careful.

"S'not that bad, maybeeee I can fix it at home." He chuckles at her slurs, clearly getting drunk from the gulps of alcohol in tea.

Carefully he lifts the girl to the counter in between the fridge and sink, washing it with soap and disinfecting alcohol.

Oh god, that hurts! She bites her lip, tears stinging yet she refuses to let them fall.

Chihaya can practically taste her pain—his tongue sweet and sour as he finally dabs it dry and wraps it firmly. The peachy haired man then brushes away the hidden tears before the G was exchanged.

For the next seven hours Akari sits on the counter against the icy fridge watching him cook for the bar. No one bothering her, not even Chihaya who simply works around her. Eyes heavy, she drifts into slumber.

"Kathy can you ride her horse back? I'll carry her home." Chihaya lifts the chocolate hair girl bridal style with a grunt; she sure is heavier than he thought, especially to the very end of Carmel river district next to the caramel falls. How could she live so far?

"Be more careful." He mumbles while pulling a warm blanket over her before looking around. She has a big house, though it is rather empty. Must be new. He notes before walking out into the crisp air of fall to met eyes with her farm.

How in the world is she going to take care of all this, plus her other land with that leg? She would need help… It was then that the chef wrote a note, saying something that would change the way she thought of him forever:

**Dear farm girl,**

** Look, the doctor is away for this week to visit his family. Your legs not an emergency so there is no reason to take the ship to the city, but you will need help around this smelly farm of yours. If you pay me, I suppose I could do a few things to help you out… but not much! And don't tell anyone I'm helping you! Oh, and also… Your kitchen has nice cooking ware.**

** -Chihaya**

The last part about her kitchen sounded funny to him, too nice… Crossing it out he places it on her diary stand and leaves to wander around before going to sleep. Tomorrow was Sunday, no work for him…at Sundae at least. Would she respond to his letter?

Chihaya enters his house, wondering why his heart was beating so fast and why he was so worried if Akari would say nothing to him.


	2. Broken Cat

Muscles' rimming shiny fur flexes and shifts as a feline leaps onto the cherry wood. A slip of paper falls under the bed as the midnight cat jumps to the sleeping girl. The words **Dear farm girl**, curled so it looks like a single word: **farm.** If she even noticed the hidden paper, it could easily be mistaken for some farm notes when working on Brownie farm for experience with animals. She wouldnt need that anymore.

"Morning KoKo." Akari mumbles, forcing herself into the morning chill. It is not soon until coffee warms her and allows her to stretch in the brilliant sun until starting work.

"How did I get here…?" She wonders while milking her cow—MooMoo. _Let's see…Chihaya was placing breadfruit with cocoa then…blank. _She must have fallen asleep and was carried home. She blushed, embarrassed. At least she knows it was not Chihaya. He would not waste energy on her.

Sharp stabs of pain shoot up her leg—gritting her teeth and panting slightly. It must have gotten infected last night, but she would not dare check herself. Akari whistles before leaping onto the horse with a sigh of relief. _Thank god those chores are done; hopefully the clinic has pain medicine. _

Wind blows through chocolate hair as hooves pound against dirt, then gravel and finally the sidewalks of Waffle Town. The beach fills the air with salty humanity while turning to corner past the General store to the Clinic. But they're not open…again. Nor is Jin anywhere on the island. _Damn, Damn, Damn!_

Akari enters the inn and to make matters worse Chihaya seems different, as if holding his sweet orange breath. It was an hour before opening—again.

She hesitates to ask why the clinic is closed, but decides it would be best not to.

"You're awful quite." Akari bites her lip when sitting at the table; gruesome pops of the skin reopening bloodies the bandage.

"How's the farm?" he tries, hoping she would bring up the note.

"I…was thinking about asking for some help at Brownie Farm. Hire a part time employee." A plate crashes to the floor, shattering like his hopes. But, as if to put together the broken pieces, Akari is quick to her feet.

She helps him pick up the shards, hands brushing against one another often until standing in the kitchen doorway.

The orange chief now pins her—on accident, to the wall. The scent of molasses and sweet horse hay coming from the blushing Akari, but she would never know how much he likes it.

How stunning she was in his violet eyes that stare for just a moment then moves back to the cooking. _That's what's important_, he convinces himself, _cooking_. Always has been. Yet she…she didn't like him. It makes him exasperatingly want Akari even more than the first time they met.

Not only was Akari's cooking good, but he couldn't stop looking at her. She was beautiful and stubborn. His mind was flooded with the image of Akari, how cute she was holding a baby chick around every announcing that her chicken's egg hatched.

"Chihaya!" That snaps him out to see this farmer with her hands on her hips—probably had called his name more than once.

"What do you want?" He growls rudely. Maybe if he was a bit nice…No. He was nice when he wrote that letter, but did she respond? No, she decided to hire someone ELSE to help her! Maybe he was wrong for ever liking her.


End file.
